VIDEO: Harrogate Conservatives increase majority by 9% in council elections

A few winning members of the Harrogate Conservative Party got together for a quick snap as the last few results started coming in.

Councillor Richard Cooper (Con), for Harrogate Central ward, said he was grateful to remain as leader for HBC for another four years.

The Conservatives won with a majority of 31 seats out of 40 (77.5%), an increase of nine per cent on their previous majority where they held 37 seats out of 54 (68.5%).

The Lib Dems won seven seats, while the Ripon Independents won two seats in the city's Minster and Ure Bank wards.

Less seats were up for grabs this year, as new boundary commission guidelines increased the number of Harrogate District wards from 35 to 40, but reduced the number of seats in each ward from two to one.

Coun Cooper said: “We haven’t just held Harrogate Borough Council we’ve increased our percentage of councillors on the council.

"I think this is an endorsement of what Harrogate Borough Council’s Conservative Group has been doing over the past four years of my leadership and I look forward to continuing working on behalf of the public for the next four years."

Speaking on his own win in Harrogate Central, where he will remain as the ward councillor, Coun Cooper said: “I’m obviously very pleased to have done that, however, the job is not for me to be pleased, it’s for me to do a good job on behalf of the electorate, and that is what I hope i will continue to do and I’m very grateful to them for giving me this chance to represent the community once again."

Leader of the Lib Dems, Councillor Pat Marsh, won the seat she stood for in Harrogate Hookstone ward, but said she was disappointed at the overall result.

She said: "I am disappointed because we have got a council that is not really representative of all the different people that live in the district, we need those different voices.

"It is disappointing because we had brilliant candidates who worked their socks off.

"But we are determined to put as much pressure on this council to get them to deliver on what's important."

Candidates also stood for Labour, Democrats and Veterans Party, The Yorkshire Party, The Women's Equality Party and The Green Party, but were not successful in winning any seats.